Jean Mansfield's feta cheese making instructions - 20 November
Preparation
The most crucial factor in home cheese making is cleanliness.
All surfaces and equipment must be sanitized. I use a weak solution of bleach. 1 tablespoon of household bleach (4 percent chlorine) dissolved in 8 litres of cold water. You can use a weak solution of iodine or Milton instead.
When it comes to cleaning, I use the two-bucket
system.
Half fill one red and one blue bucket with cold water. Add a
tablespoon of bleach to the red bucket.
Every utensil goes into the blue bucket and then the red bleach
bucket and then into your milk or curds.
What you need
I use plastic utensils as they don't damage the curd when
you stir.
You will need a good thermometer. Ideally on that has a stainless
steel probe and a large digital readout. (The probe is also
useful for aerating your blue cheeses)
Two stainless steel pots.
6 litres of fresh cow's milk
Dried cheese starter
Lipase
Rennet
Water
Now you're ready to make feta!
Method
- Place cows' milk into your centre pot.
- Pasteurize by heating to 68 degrees Celsius for 2
minutes.
- Cool the milk to 37 degrees Celsius ready for the cheese
starter.
- Add 1/2 tsp freeze dried cheese starter directly to the milk
and gently stir for about a minute. TCC3 is a bacteria that adds
flavour to the milk
- Add a pinch of lipase, this is an enzyme that also adds
flavour (it is optional but will give a zing to the finished
cheese. If you like parmesan add the lipase)
- Leave the milk for 30 minutes for the starter to begin
working.
- Add 1/4 tsp rennet to a tablespoon of cooled boiled water
and add this to the milk.
- Stir it in for about a minute.
- Put the lid on and leave to set for 1 hour.
- Try to keep the temperature at 37 degrees Celsius so you
might need to add some warm water to your outside pot.
- Test the curd by cutting directly across the centre.
If it cuts cleanly it is ready.
- Cut the curd into 2 cm cubes (Roughly the size of a thumb
nail)
- Make vertical cuts in one direction and then turn and cut
across so the top looks like a checkerboard
- And make horizontal cuts on top of the lines that you have
already cut.
- Give the curd a swing.
- Leave to sit for 1/2 an hour and then stir once or twice
very gently. (Like folding egg whites)
- Repeat twice more (This takes an hour and a half
altogether)
- Sanitize your molds.
- Ladle the curds into the moulds.
- Leave to sit for 1 hour.
- Turn the moulds over.
- Leave in the moulds on the kitchen bench overnight.
- Next morning unmold and place in brine.
- Leave for 21 days in the brine.
- If you haven't eaten your feta in 21 days cut it into cubes
and place in herbed olive oil.
It will keep in the oil for 6 months or more.
Supplies for cheesemaking are available from www.cottagecrafts.co.nz
